I first heard of Eric Brown through a mention of The Bigfoot Wars. This is my first experience with his work and I have to say, it is not what I was expecting.
I don’t mean that in a bad way.
Last Stand in a Dead Land opens with a survivor, Jacob, in an office building that contains the infected. He’s trying to accept that he may well be the last survivor in the city when a mysterious stranger arrives and rescues him from becoming a human happy meal. The action picks up from there to an almost breakneck pace where Brown introduces characters and weaves their background, intentions and development into a cohesive roller coaster ride that will leave the reader drained by the end.
Tossing in a psychotic sociopath barricaded in a morgue to remote farmhouses threatened by a large creature in the woods, Brown throws everything at the reader that he can manage and makes it work.
There are several plot twists revolving around Elijah, the mysterious stranger who rescued Jacob within the first chapter to Thomas, the aforementioned occupant at the remote farmhouse. The characters take on a life of their own and make what at times seem to be very harsh decisions. Brown has captured the desperation of a survival situation where a moment’s hesitation makes the difference between life and death.
What was a nice change of pace from other novels in the genre are the unexpected twists that are worked into the plot. The reader is led to believe that Elijah is some sort of special operations soldier due to his actions and his own statement that he came from a nearby military installation. Couple that with his obvious skill with weaponry and a vehicle full of ammo and it appears that at first glance, we have the makings of a cliché super zombie killer. This is not the case. I’m not going to spill what Elijah turns out to be but suffice it to say, it’s not what I was expecting.
No Eric Brown story would be complete if Bigfoot didn’t make a guest appearance. The old walking hair bag makes his formal entry later in the story after most of the survivors have reached Thomas’ farmhouse. Yet another plot twist develops there that was pleasantly unexpected. Elijah’s background comes out and there’s a connection to Thomas. Elijah turns out to not be a nice guy and the survivors pay a heavy price for that. But, have no fear; Bigfoot is here to save the day.
Not many authors can combine zombies with Bigfoot and create a work such as this.
Last Stand in a Dead Land ratchets the suspense and terror right up to the last page where yet another Eric Brown plot twist appears. I have to admit; this novella surprised me more than others I have read and was a pleasure to be able to review. I’m looking forward to more of Brown’s work and agree that The Bigfoot Wars need to be made into a movie.
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